We will need to stay very alert in the coming months. Unless, of course, you imagine our political & corporate ‘leaders’ have suddenly become altruistic and benevolent. “… people are without question highly susceptible to accepting extreme emergency measures whether or not such measures are rational or justified … political actors are fully aware that these conditions of fear and panic provide a critical opportunity that can be exploited in order to pursue political, economic and societal objectives.” https://off-guardian.org/…/the-propaganda-of-terror-and-fe…/

Any politician (or journalist) using the term “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” should be waterboarded, ‘rectally rehydrated’, and forced to stand in an agonizing position until they soil themselves.And then asked if they’re now ready to use the correct term – torture.

And Canadians shouldn’t get too smug about thinking the CIA torture techniques wouldn’t be used here.

Considering the overheated frenzy of nationalism that swept the country after a lone crazed gunman attacked parliament hill, I wonder how quickly Canadians would support ‘torturing a few folks’ if we suffered carnage akin to 9/11.

But full credit to the American government for releasing the CIA torture report. I can’t recall Mr. Harper’s government mustering up the integrity to admit to doing anything wrong. Ever.

USA TORTURE MASTERMINDS PAID $81 MILLION
The two psychologists who devised and tested the CIA torture tactics were paid $81 million.
And the American Psychological Association didn’t see this as a problem. More here

CIA TORTURE WHISTLEBLOWER ONLY ONE IN PRISON

“John Kiriakou, who worked for the CIA between 1990 and 2004, stepped forward in 2007 and confirmed to press outlets some of the first details about the agency’s widespread use of torture.

Among Kiriakou’s revelations was an account to ABC News of the repeated water-boardings of Abu Zubaydah—a man currently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay without charges whose 12 years of torture and abuse at the hands of the U.S. were further exposed in the Senate report.

In 2013, Kiriakou—a father of five—was prosecuted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act for allegedly revealing classified information to a reporter. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison, which he is still serving. His incarceration came after the Obama administration refused to prosecute any of the higher-up government officials who designed, authorized, or otherwise took part in implementation of the torture program.” More here

Yeah, that title got your attention, huh? We lived in Japan a couple times, once for 3 years, and developed a love/hate relationship with the place. (Probably mutual.) And these 2 pieces give you a sense of why:

JAPANESE POLICE ARREST WOMAN WHO MADE KAYAK MODELED FROM HER VAGINA – AGAIN“A woman who 3-D printed her vagina and rendered it into a giant yellow Kayak, has been arrested — again — by Japanese police for allegedly trying to show people her “Pussy Boat.” (more here)

THERE IS NO BUDDHA IN TWITTER

Love this from a recent Twitter Quitter: “… I was becoming unconscious over at Twitter. I’d wrapped myself into a stream of inane blather that is extremely habit forming but ultimately becomes rote, superficial and turns you into a mental mirror, rather than a sentient being. There is no Buddha in Twitter.” (More here)

He has since rejoined for some specific usage, but with a new account that he is determined to use very sparingly, saying: “I’ve re-joined Twitter, but … On October 12th I decided to close down my Twitter account as an experiment. I could see it was taking up too much of my time, on the other hand I found it useful for certain things and I wanted to see what difference not having it around would make to my working life and life in general.”

“The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase’s Worst Nightmare:
Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.”

In fact, the term was probably dreamed up by some marketing genius on the payroll of the pharmaceutical industry with the express intention of making you feel scared. Why? Because they sell a lot more drugs and vaccines that way. (The stress alone probably makes some people sick.)

So next time you hear some shill yapping about “Flu Season”, have a laugh and remind yourself that only a small fraction of Canadians gets the flu every year (estimates go as low as 5%.)

And that with some very simple techniques – wash your hands regularly, cough or sneeze into your elbow, and don’t burn out your immune system with too much skiing, partying and work – you’ll probably be one of the 80-90% of Canadians who is flu-free this winter.

Not sure of the source or accuracy of this anecdote, but it’s rich none the less.

When Mahatma Gandhi was studying law at the University College of London, a professor whose last name was Peters, disliked him intensely and always displayed animosity toward him.

Also, because Gandhi never lowered his head when addressing him as he expected, there were always “arguments” and confrontations.

One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room of the University, and Gandhi came along with his tray and sat next to the professor.

The professor said,”Mr Gandhi, you do not understand. A pig and a bird do not sit together to eat.”

Gandhi looked at him as a parent would a rude child and calmly replied, “You do not worry professor. I’ll fly away,” and he went and sat at another table.

Mr. Peters, reddened with rage, decided to take revenge on the next test paper, but Gandhi responded brilliantly to all questions.

Mr. Peters, unhappy and frustrated, asked him the following question: “Mr Gandhi, if you were walking down the street and found a package, and within was a bag of wisdom and another bag with a lot of money, which one would you take?”

Without hesitating, Gandhi responded, “The one with the money, of course.”

Mr. Peters, smiling sarcastically said, “I, in your place, would have taken the wisdom.”

Gandhi shrugged indifferently and responded, “Each one takes what he doesn’t have.”

Mr. Peters, by this time was fit to be tied. So great was his anger that he wrote on Gandhi’s exam sheet the word “idiot” and gave it to Gandhi.

Gandhi took the exam sheet and sat down at his desk, trying very hard to remain calm while he contemplated his next move.

A few minutes later, Gandhi got up, went to the professor and said to him in a dignified but sarcastically polite tone, “Mr. Peters, you autographed the sheet, but you did not give me the grade.”

“All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial—but Democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit. ”– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, published 1958

“VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings.”
Darkness headed our way? Part 1 here: https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-part-1

Way to go Canada – that’s how you escalate a situation! We used to send peace-keepers; Harper prefers weapons. (Canada dropped hundreds of 500-pound bombs on Libya. Which is now quite a mess, by the way.)
This is starting with helmets and vests, apparently. (I bet the Palestinians could have used some of those in Israel’s latest bloody invasion. In fact, ‘Israel Defense Forces’ is now about as oxymoronic as you can get.)

But just as Harper’s simplistic good guy-bad guy view of the world would have gotten us into Iraq, he’s jumping into the Ukraine way before all the facts are known. Oh Canada, indeed.

AND THEN THE NEXT DAY … It’s market cap goes over $5.9 billion, making the CEO (and only employee) one of the 400 richest people on earth. Just who is he? According to this post by AlaricBalth:

“The CEO Marlon Sanchez claims in his bio to have been the primary spokesperson for the Medical Tourism Industry council in Tijuana,Mexico. Yet after a few phone calls, the organization doesn’t exist. Sanchez is a front man.”

and …

“Cynk is an illusion. Operates out of a Regus Virtual Office in Las Vegas. The company’s 2011 and 2012 auditor, Peter Messineo, CPA, was sanctioned by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for “deficiencies identified in both of the audits reviewed included deficiencies of such significance that it appeared to the inspection team that the Firm, at the time it issued its audit report, had not obtained sufficient competent evidential matter to support its opinion on the issuer’s financial statements.”

Billionaire entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has a message for his fellow plutocrats. A few tidbits:
“I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine.
… I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart … is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. … And what do I see in our future now? I see pitchforks.
… the problem isn’t that we have inequality. … The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society.
And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.”

First time this really struck home for me was during our 3 years living in Japan. Man, do they know about presentation! And they didn’t need some Western scientists to do a study to figure it out ;-))

“Psychologists and food scientists tested an idea favoured by some top chefs [and found that] …diners prefer a visually attractive dish, say it tastes better and they’ll pay more for it, an experiment cooked up by a chef suggests.

“ISIS running rampant through the region means that America’s nine-year war in Iraq was virtually a complete failure. It achieved nothing. It proves that there is no democratic Iraq, or even a stable state to maintain control.”

The current situation was predicted with incredible accuracy before the US invaded by many who actually understand the region’s politics. Removing Saddam Hussein and dismantling all police and security forces created a power vacuum … that is now being filled. Just as would happen in any country where you did the same thing. Think about it – how long did it take for New Orleans to tumble into chaos after hurricane Katrina hit?

“Most Americans do not understand that Wall Street has been transformed into the largest casino in the history of the world. The big banks are being incredibly reckless with our money, and if they fail it will bring down the entire economy.”

“We will see Google and Facebook emerge with electronic accounts for a
client-base that will increasingly move away from brick-and-mortar banks
rendering them obsolete just as Amazon wiped out a lot of bookstores.”

“Low vitamin D levels are a symptom of poor health – not the cause, according to a systematic review of previously published scientific studies. The new finding casts further doubt on the role of vitamin D supplements in disease prevention, even as millions of Canadians pop pills of the sunshine drug each day.”

“Nearly 1 in 5 lung tumors detected on CT scans are probably so slow-growing that they would never cause problems. The analysis suggests the world’s No. 1 cause of cancer deaths isn’t as lethal as doctors once thought.

In the study, these were not false-positives — suspicious results that turn out upon further testing not to be cancer. These were indeed cancerous tumors, but ones that caused no symptoms and were unlikely ever to become deadly, the researchers said.”

Kind of a good-news/ bad-news piece. One in five negative. Four in five still positive.

The strategic value of the Ukraine will dictate what happens there. What’s so valuable? Take a look at the map below of Russia’s pipelines flowing through the Ukraine to western Europe. Do you think Putin will let the West gain control of those?

And note that the crime lord mentioned in that blog post, Semyon Mogilevich, one of FBI’s most wanted people, lives in … Moscow, where even billionaire oligarchs have learned nothing happens without Putin’s approval.

We’ve seen a lot of Orcas (Killer Whales) and dolphins or our regular travels in the Salish Sea of western Canada, but never something like this. The video was taken right in the harbour of the city of Nanaimo, where the ferry docks on its trip from the Vancouver area.

Here in BC, our provincial ‘Liberal’ government redefined democracy by sitting the legislature just 39 days out of the last 569.

Federally, the Harper government redefined hypocrisy by gagging scientists and gutting environmental protection, and then claiming their approval of the Northern Gateway Spill-line was ‘science-based.’

Internationally, a homophobic Russian dictator became the most powerful man in the world. And Japan introduced a new Secrets Act that says what is secret is a secret, but exposing those secrets can lead to ten years in prison. (George, are you watching this?)

Meanwhile, the president of Uruguay drives a 1987 VW Beetle, uses the official palace as a homeless shelter, and donates about 90% of his salary to local charities.

And the fine folks at Playground Builders reach into war-torn darkness and make the world a better place one joyful child at a time.

It’s a weird and wonderful world. And if you don’t think we can lose what we’ve got, you’re not paying attention. Now, if only our taxes were subsidizing people like Playground Builders instead of Enbridge.

VANCOUVER, Canada from the north shore mountains.*Photo by Artur Stanisz. More here:http://500px.com/ArturStanisz*After-story: I originally found this on Google Earth pics with no credit mentioned to Mr. Stanisz. Buggers. I remember thinking, “Google Earth took this?? How the hell … ?” So I looked all over but couldn’t find any other reference until just now, 2 weeks later. So kudos to Mr. Stanisz! And a Bronx cheer to Google.

One of my favorite charities is Playground Builders. They build playgrounds for children in war-torn areas of the Middle East, providing safe places for children to play. They always use local people in the building process, providing much-needed jobs and injecting money into the local economy. And their own administrative costs are bare minimum. (I know the founder and members of the board of this organization.)

If you feel inclined to donate, a benefactor is matching all funds up to $50,000, but only until midnight December 31st. So your $10 would become $20. You can learn more here: http://www.playgroundbuilders.org/what-we-do

In the last year and a half the British Columbia legislature has sat for … 36 days.

By the end of 2013, it will be 36 days out of the last 579 (going back to May 31, 2012.) There was no fall sitting in 2012 or 2013 – both cancelled by Premier Christy Clark.

How’s that for a functioning democracy! (Certainly convenient if you want to announce policies like 28% Hydro increases and massive BC Ferry cuts without a pesky opposition party being able to ask you questions.)

A recent study suggests a link between high sexual drive and intelligence. Basically, if you stay up late, use drugs, have blue eyes, big boobs, and enjoy a lot of slap- and-tickle, you might be a candidate for Mensa. (The ‘the high IQ society’.)

A wonderful documentary, FIRST POSITION follows six exceptional young ballet dancers as they prepare to perform at an event that can open the door to a professional career.

Bruised and bloodied feet, near exhaustion, debilitating injuries, plus the regular challenges of adolescence, all at the same time. An awe-inspiring portrait of “the most gifted ballet stars of tomorrow.”

In the last decade the population of Las Vegas has grown from 400,000 to 2,000,000, and they’re quickly draining their only resource for water.
” …the reservoir that supplies 90 per cent of Las Vegas’s water is fast disappearing and desperate attempts to save Sin City are under way … Lake Mead has slowly been drained of four trillion gallons of water and is now well under half full. Mr Barnett predicts it may be a “dead pool” that provides no water by about 2036.”